For those of you who don’t know, Minecraft is a PC/Mac/Xbox/Playstation/handheld
game started by a man named Markus "Notch" Persson. The basic idea
behind the game is to play a character in a randomly generated world where
almost everything (and I mean almost everything) is movable, collectable, and
useable in some fashion. Its “Lego-like” appearance and distinctive/intentional
pixelated graphics have caught the attention of many gamers who like the “retro
look”. The first-person game involves building; exploring; mining; farming;
landscaping, forging metals into tools, items, weapons, and armor;
raising/taming animals; fighting zombies, creepers, slimes, witches, skeletons,
etc.; and trading with NPCs. It is extremely open ended, has almost no
plot-line to speak of, and appears deceptively easy to play. There are also
multiple game modes which include: Creative (the player is able to build and
explore with almost no limits or danger); Survival (the player must work for
everything they get while trying to fend off harmful enemies); Hardcore (same
as Survival only much more dangerous); and Multiplayer (payers log onto an
internet server and can organize co-operative play or PvP within the same map).
If you are interested in seeing how it all looks/works, I recommend Paul Soares
Jr.’s videos on YouTube, especially the “How to Survive and Thrive” series of which
the first episode can be found HERE.

So what does Minecraft and D&D have in common? Well
for starters both are RPG based. In D&D you fight monsters and hunt for
treasure in order to level up/improve your character and progress the story.
While there is no real “story” in Minecraft, your character still fights
monsters and hunts for resources/treasure to level up and create/construct
whatever it is you wish within the game world. Secondly, both games have some
pretty standard fantasy elements within their frameworks such as enchantments,
potions, teleportation, hit points, and even dragons. Thirdly, and perhaps the
most significant of all, in both games the player is free to do almost anything
they wish within the framework of the game world. What you can accomplish is limited
only by your imagination. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest selling
points of D&D and I’m sure that many players of Minecraft would say the
same.

So where does Minecraft and D&D differ? To start, they
were each born out of two very different generations. D&D was a child of
the seventies and had its origins from popular fiction, novels, myths, and
legends. Minecraft was born into the modern digital age and had its roots in
previous PC games such as “Dwarf Fortress, Dungeon Keeper, and later
Infiniminer” (Wikipedia), as well as…well…D&D. The vehicle for play is also
different as D&D works best as a face-to-face sociable tabletop game, where
Minecraft is more of a solitary computer/console game. D&D is also more
story/goal based where Minecraft is open-ended and has a greater focus on
construction and use of resources. And while both games have NPCs, in D&D
they are quite diverse and can function on multiple levels while the Minecraft
NPCs only serve the purpose of trade and could do with a bit more
character/versatility.

Finally, what can both games learn from each other? The
short answer is: a lot. Minecraft already took a page from D&D when its
game designers realized it had to be more than just a sandbox construction
game. However, in my opinion, they haven’t taken it far enough. Minecraft can
still go further into D&D’s wheelhouse and be a better game. Make the NPCs
more interactive, add greater quests/achievements and more ‘boss’ type enemies,
perhaps some spells and spell casting could be thrown in, introduce races and
classes, and a greater range of weapons and tools would be excellent. As it
currently stands, Minecraft is still evolving and changing with each new
version (since the game’s release there have been seven major updates/alterations)
and I’m sure that some of the things I’ve brought up are being considered as I speak
and will be implemented in the future.

As for D&D, the main lesson it could learn from
Minecraft is to be more open-ended. This is an area that D&D used to be
strong in for many years but I think too much emphasis has been placed on
pre-generated adventures, modules, miniatures, and tiles in recent times. These
pre-generated items, while very well done and interesting, are taking away from
one of the true strengths of D&D: Imagination! My advice to Wizards of the
Coast is to give DMs the framework like 2nd Edition did with its
boxed sets. They gave us the “world” but still left things sufficiently open
for everyone’s creativity and originality to flow. Leave the blanks blank! In
this regard, I hope the game designers of D&D Next have learned their
lesson from 4th Edition. You don’t need to spoon feed the DMs and
thus the PCs every NPC, encounter, magic item, and event. Give us some
locations, a few suggestions, and some fascinating stories to get us going and
then turn us loose. Don’t try to control us, give us the tools to create.

I think the other lesson that Minecraft holds for D&D
is the old saying: keep it simple stupid. Minecraft has done very well for
itself in a very short amount of time because it’s simple and fun. The
popularity of the game has exploded and it’s not because of the ‘insane’
graphics, or lifelike gameplay, or award winning plotline. None of these things
exist in Minecraft. However, what it does have is plain old simple fun and apparently
that trumps everything else…who knew? (sarcasm Sheldon, sarcasm) As far as I’m
concerned, D&D needs to do a little soul searching when this new edition
arrives and realize that if it’s not simple and fun, everything else doesn’t
matter.

So there you go, two titans in their respective fields
both able to up their game by learning from one another. As D&D celebrates
its 40th anniversary this year, I can’t help but wonder if Minecraft
will last that long. And if it does…what will it look like?